good stuff
Jo and I have gone through the process you went through. You know what, it isn't easy finding a "good" church, and it's impossible to find a "perfect" church that meets all your needs. Our process took MUCH longer than we ever imagined, like a year. Part of that was the pregnancy and birth complications and all that. But let me share our process, and maybe it can help you.
1) Weed out the churches: Investigate the church's website, taking into account their demographics, and fellowship opportunities, etc. Most important for us was reading their statement of faith, to see if we agreed with it. Listen to some sermons if they have it, to see whether it's theologically correct, and if you like the style.
2) Narrow down your list to your top 3. You can't visit every single church. And if the first 3 don't work out, expand your list. Also, if you have to visit more than like 10 churches, consider the possibility that you may be being too picky.
3) Visit the churches: You can't gauge a church based on one visit. It's too short to make any judgments, and any given week might be a one-off. I.e. visiting preacher, or special sundays, or whatever. Visit each church for at least 3 weeks. I don't think it necessarily has to be consecutive weeks.
4) Gauge immediate impact - sermon: For your visits, take notes during the sermon. Afterwards, think about the sermon. Ask yourself questions like, Was it illuminating? Did you agree with it? Did it expand your knowledge of God? Did it make you want to change your life to be more in line with Christ? Did it put Christ first and foremost? Was it biblically based, or more world-based? etc.
5) Gauge immediate impact - welcoming: How churches deal with newcomers shows part of their church philosphy and way of being. I believe that how churches welcome people is a reflection of their walk/maturity in God. Did they welcome you? Did you feel a part of the church, or did people just kinda glance at you, acknowledging your newness, and then walk away because they didn't know how to welcome? Did it make you want to be a part of the group? Did they give you gospel tracts, etc?
You can repeat the same process for your top 3 churches.
During, and after the three weeks, evaluate the top churches for long term impact.
6) Gauge long-term impact - sermon: Look back over your sermon notes. Was it a memorable sermon? Did it have any impact on your life? Was it something you still agree with? For me, I want to look back on a sermon and think, yeah, that was a pretty good sermon.
7) Gauge long-term impact - welcoming/congregation: Does your time with the congregation make you want to get to know them better? Do their actions reflect Christ-likeness? Do they encourage and exhort each other? How does their fellowship seem?
8) Gauge long-term impact - outreach: What are the church's outreach opportunities like, if any? Do they have a good local, and global, view of missions, and are active in spreading God's Word? Are people interested and involved?
After visiting the churches and gauging them, you should have a leading or top contender. At that point you need to just make a decision and choose a church and get involved. That's how you truly find out how a church is.
9) Attend fellowship. Interact with people. Get involved.
10) Serve. Find some ministry or activity or something where you can be at God's work.
I can guarantee you that you will always find a handful of things wrong with any church. Nothing is going to be perfect. But that's why it's like a marriage. No spouse will be perfect, but you make a commitment, and you stick with it, bearing through any faults.
It's not an easy process, and because you want everything to be just perfect since you're looking for something "better", Jo and I found ourselves being very wishy washy when it came to picking a church. It's too easy to be critical and say, well, I like this aspect, and not that one. I like this church better because of this, but then that church is better because of that. The sermon's better, but bad music, or the music's better, but less congregational fellowship, etc etc. And you find yourself looking for the next church that improves on all aspects, etc. But be careful, because I think it's like a pit from Satan that will pull you away from God. Because the more church searching you do, the more you will be merely a critical spectator, and less and less involved in serving God. That's how I felt. Going from a bible study leader and worship team member to just being one person in the audience. It left me feeling pretty empty and inactive. We didn't even really go to a fellowship during that time because we were afraid to get too involved that we might feel like we couldn't switch. In the end, we just had to PICK one and get in the THICK of it, and STICK with it. (Haha, I just made that up.)
Anyways, I'm pretty excited, because now that Jo and I have picked a church, we're getting involved again. We attended one of the first couples' fellowship meetings, and just got the next book that we're going to be studying, so we're pretty excited. Also, I'm looking to see if I can get involved with the music ministry, and I'm hoping things will really turn out. And I'm excited to get to know a group of people and see how we can all help each other grow closer to Christlikeness, and experience God together.
But again, that took like 8 months, which is TOO long if you ask me.
Keep praying!
Posted 10/15/2007 11:35 AM by chinchy
1) Weed out the churches: Investigate the church's website, taking into account their demographics, and fellowship opportunities, etc. Most important for us was reading their statement of faith, to see if we agreed with it. Listen to some sermons if they have it, to see whether it's theologically correct, and if you like the style.
2) Narrow down your list to your top 3. You can't visit every single church. And if the first 3 don't work out, expand your list. Also, if you have to visit more than like 10 churches, consider the possibility that you may be being too picky.
3) Visit the churches: You can't gauge a church based on one visit. It's too short to make any judgments, and any given week might be a one-off. I.e. visiting preacher, or special sundays, or whatever. Visit each church for at least 3 weeks. I don't think it necessarily has to be consecutive weeks.
4) Gauge immediate impact - sermon: For your visits, take notes during the sermon. Afterwards, think about the sermon. Ask yourself questions like, Was it illuminating? Did you agree with it? Did it expand your knowledge of God? Did it make you want to change your life to be more in line with Christ? Did it put Christ first and foremost? Was it biblically based, or more world-based? etc.
5) Gauge immediate impact - welcoming: How churches deal with newcomers shows part of their church philosphy and way of being. I believe that how churches welcome people is a reflection of their walk/maturity in God. Did they welcome you? Did you feel a part of the church, or did people just kinda glance at you, acknowledging your newness, and then walk away because they didn't know how to welcome? Did it make you want to be a part of the group? Did they give you gospel tracts, etc?
You can repeat the same process for your top 3 churches.
During, and after the three weeks, evaluate the top churches for long term impact.
6) Gauge long-term impact - sermon: Look back over your sermon notes. Was it a memorable sermon? Did it have any impact on your life? Was it something you still agree with? For me, I want to look back on a sermon and think, yeah, that was a pretty good sermon.
7) Gauge long-term impact - welcoming/congregation: Does your time with the congregation make you want to get to know them better? Do their actions reflect Christ-likeness? Do they encourage and exhort each other? How does their fellowship seem?
8) Gauge long-term impact - outreach: What are the church's outreach opportunities like, if any? Do they have a good local, and global, view of missions, and are active in spreading God's Word? Are people interested and involved?
After visiting the churches and gauging them, you should have a leading or top contender. At that point you need to just make a decision and choose a church and get involved. That's how you truly find out how a church is.
9) Attend fellowship. Interact with people. Get involved.
10) Serve. Find some ministry or activity or something where you can be at God's work.
I can guarantee you that you will always find a handful of things wrong with any church. Nothing is going to be perfect. But that's why it's like a marriage. No spouse will be perfect, but you make a commitment, and you stick with it, bearing through any faults.
It's not an easy process, and because you want everything to be just perfect since you're looking for something "better", Jo and I found ourselves being very wishy washy when it came to picking a church. It's too easy to be critical and say, well, I like this aspect, and not that one. I like this church better because of this, but then that church is better because of that. The sermon's better, but bad music, or the music's better, but less congregational fellowship, etc etc. And you find yourself looking for the next church that improves on all aspects, etc. But be careful, because I think it's like a pit from Satan that will pull you away from God. Because the more church searching you do, the more you will be merely a critical spectator, and less and less involved in serving God. That's how I felt. Going from a bible study leader and worship team member to just being one person in the audience. It left me feeling pretty empty and inactive. We didn't even really go to a fellowship during that time because we were afraid to get too involved that we might feel like we couldn't switch. In the end, we just had to PICK one and get in the THICK of it, and STICK with it. (Haha, I just made that up.)
Anyways, I'm pretty excited, because now that Jo and I have picked a church, we're getting involved again. We attended one of the first couples' fellowship meetings, and just got the next book that we're going to be studying, so we're pretty excited. Also, I'm looking to see if I can get involved with the music ministry, and I'm hoping things will really turn out. And I'm excited to get to know a group of people and see how we can all help each other grow closer to Christlikeness, and experience God together.
But again, that took like 8 months, which is TOO long if you ask me.
Keep praying!
Posted 10/15/2007 11:35 AM by chinchy
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10:03:00 PM
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